Erised
by MelodyPond77
Summary: Harry and Ginny come out of an early retirement to fill the Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms vacancies. Harry/Ginny one-shot, cute and fluffy (but not three-headed). Read and review!


**Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter, never have, never will. This is just a little scene I wrote, it's short and sweet, so if you want something with mystery, death, and destruction, try my other Harry Potter fanfic, Sort of Half Blood. Read and Review! **

Erised

The older couple strolled up the path, arms linked. Mrs. Potter smiled as they passed the green houses, reminiscing a certain incident in her fifth year when a Venomous Tentacula had caught her and Harry. As they passed the Quidditch field, Mr. Potter gently fingered the old snitch in his pocket and recalled the party after that final match of his sixth year. They continued to walk in companionable silence towards the front doors of Hogwarts.

Harry pushed the great doors open, and he and his wife entered the castle, stopping in the entrance hall. "I've missed this place, Ginny. I wonder if Peeves is still here, wreaking havoc and pranking unsuspecting first years."

Ginny laughed at the memories that surfaced with the mention of the obnoxious poltergeist. "Come on, let's find Neville." With a new spring in their steps, the Potters started up the stairs towards the headmaster's office.

Halfway up, Ginny spotted their old friend. "Neville!" They hurried toward each other, the grins on their faces making them all look twenty years younger. Ginny hugged the middle-aged Headmaster, and Harry shook Neville's hand.

Once the general greetings had been exchanged, Neville grew serious and turned to his friends

"I'm sorry about the late notice, but I had abrupt cancellations in the Defense against the Dark Arts and Charms positions. As you know, Seamus got married over the summer and is moving back to Ireland, and, well, Jane Umbridge has heard all about the Hogwarts centaurs from her great-aunt and promptly refused to return once I told her they would be welcomed in the forest.

Neville grinned at Harry and Ginny, obviously trying not to laugh at the antics that were being passed from aunt to niece. "I honestly only hired her the first year because there was no other choice. It was either she or Goyle's son, and Douglas Goyle is even stupider than his father, if you can believe it. I'm surprised he even managed the simple sentences he used in his application."

He sobered and got back down to business. "Anyways, I really need good people to teach those subjects. Just until I can find someone else. Are you willing?"

Ginny and Harry looked at each other, ensuing in a silent conversation that squashed any doubt Neville had ever had of their perfectness for each other.

"I'm sorry for dragging you out of retirement so soon… I didn't know to whom else I should have sent an owl. I mean, I couldn't ask Teddy and Victoire because of the new baby, and James just completed his auror training and-"

"Of course we'll do it, Neville. We wouldn't have come if we weren't planning on staying," Ginny interrupted.

Neville let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Great! I better show you where you'll be staying and let you get changed into your robes. The students are about to arrive."

Dressed in the black robes of a Hogwarts teacher, Harry surveyed the Great Hall. He enjoyed being able to watch his youngest daughter, now in her seventh year at Hogwarts, laugh and talk with her friends, the Head Girl badge gleaming on her chest. Now, as his golden plate cleared itself of the remains of his favorite treacle tart, Neville stood to give the standard announcements.

"Welcome, newcomers and friends, boys and girls, ghosts and living: a few announcements before you all hop off to bed. As a warning to those who don't know, and a friendly reminder to those who have trouble remembering-" here he glanced towards the group of Potter and Weasley clan, many of whom had inherited Fred and George Weasley's mischievous spirit- "The Forbidden Forest is off limits to anyone who wishes to remain alive and unharmed…"

Harry allowed his mind to wander down the misty lanes of his memory, recalling his own many misadventures into the Forest during his youth.

"-and now, we have two new teachers to add to our faculty here. Professor Harry Potter, who will be taking Professor Finnegan's place as both Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Head of Gryffindor House," Harry stood and waved, smiling brightly as his daughter clapped with pride, "and Professor Ginny Potter, who will be taking Professor Umbridge's place as Charms professor." Ginny stood and smiled in her motherly way to all, then sat back down beside her husband.

"And with that, I would like the prefects to lead the way to your various common rooms, where everyone will find their beds to be quite inviting. Head Boy and Girl, I would like a word with you before you join them. Good night to all!"

The deafening roar of benches scraping the floor, hundreds of feet scuffling, and prefects calling "First years! Over here first years!" slowly quieted as the students meandered off to the various common rooms to sleep off their feast. Lily smiled at her parents as she and a Ravenclaw boy headed to meet with Professor Longbottom about their duties. Ginny and Harry followed the other faculty members through a side door that Harry had never been through before.

"So this is where the teachers sleep? I've never been back here before. It's an entirely separate wing of the castle, isn't it?" Ginny mused as she and Harry walked towards their room hand in hand.

"Yes, I don't think even Fred and George found this area when they were in school. Neville told me the door was charmed and it's got a password on it, so no one can get in." They turned the corner and opened the first door on the left. "Neville said it was this one… ah, yes, there's our luggage. Oh look, the house elves even laid out our robes. They never did that for the students." Harry said as they looked around their new home.

Ginny took everything in, looking around the bright room with a smile. "Well, it's bigger than our old dorms, and probably much more comfortable." When she glanced back at Harry, she was surprised to see tears glistening behind his wire-rimmed glasses. "What's wrong, darling?"

Harry smiled down at his wife. "Nothing, dear. I feel… home. I've missed Hogwarts so much, but I didn't realize it. It's perfect," he whispered as he wrapped his wife in an embrace.

They stood there a moment, enjoying each other's company. Finally, Ginny drew back with a small sigh. "Let's get to bed, dear. We've got a long day tomorrow." The Potters climbed into bed, turned out the lights, and slept peacefully in the castle.

Harry woke up suddenly. It was the middle of the night, and the moon was streaming into the room, lighting up something shimmery that was sticking out of his open trunk.

Quietly, so as not to disturb Ginny, he slipped out of bed and saw what it was: his old invisibility cloak.

Harry smiled. James, Albus, and Lily, when they heard their parents were returning to Hogwarts, had jokingly passed the cloak on to their parents, saying it was for "old times sake". Besides, as Lily had pointed out to them, she didn't need it. She was Head Girl, so she could roam around the castle late at night anyways.

Harry smoothed a wrinkle in the corner of the cloak, then slipped it from his bag. Grabbing his wand and glasses, he slipped under the cloak and set off into the depths of the castle.

He decided to explore the teacher's area, but soon passed into a section that seemed to be filled with guest rooms and storage closets. Entering one randomly, he turned a corner, slipped off the cloak, and saw it.

The Mirror of Erised. Dusty though it was, for it looked like it had been undisturbed since Harry's first encounter with it in his first year of Hogwarts, he still recognized the gilded frame, the way the moonlight seemed to sparkle ethereally off its polished surface, and the inscription in the frame, reading "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi."

Breathless, he stepped forward, recalling his previous encounter with this mirror. The half-mooned spectacles flashed in his mind, the knowing smile explaining to him what the mirror was warning him to guard himself against his desires- and Harry stepped closer to the mirror, preparing for everything but what he saw.

For he saw nothing. His reflection stared back at him: the wire-trimmed, round glasses perched on his mostly straight nose, the green eyes still clear despite his advancement in age, the wrinkles in the corner of his eyes and mouth, the pepper-gray hair, and his faint, lightning scar. The old, cracked desk was all that was reflected behind him.

At first, confusion fogged Harry's thoughts. Then, unbidden, he recalled Dumbledore's wise words: "The happiest man alive could use this mirror as an ordinary mirror…" and Harry smiled with this knowledge.

This was how she found him, a few minutes later, when she went in search of her missing husband. Ginny met his eyes in the mirror, and, seeing his expression, knew what he saw. Smiling, she stretched her hand towards him.

"Come, dearest," she whispered softly. "Come home."


End file.
